Crazy Fingers

So far:

• Woke up.
• Went to the bank to get certified checks.
• Went and signed the lease! We’ll get the keys on January 9th, and I’ll move in that day before I start my new job on the 10th.
• Went to the doctor about my cough. He gave me an Advair inhaler.
• Went and took pictures of our new building, which I will post later tonight.
• Came into the office. Tilak Lal called me earlier to see if I was coming in at all, because something wasn’t working at a client site. It turns out, when I got here, they couldn’t replicate the problem, so I couldn’t work on it.
• Integrated my Bloglines blogroll with the WordPress blog.
• Played with WordPress themes some more.
• Wrote this post.

How I’m going to spend the rest of the day (in no particular order):

• Get my keys back from Brian’s employee. I am currently locked out of my own apartment.
• Attempt to do some Chanukkah shopping. Brian and I are going to my parents’ house tomorrow to celebrate Chanukkah, as well as my parents’ anniversary, which is also tomorrow. I have no idea what to get anybody.
• Work out with Brian.
• Post pictures of the our new building.
• Have dinner.
• Pick up my laundry and change my linens, since the current linens have been shared by a straight man and a lesbian.
• Get money from the ATM, and get a couple of Christmas cards, so I can …
• Give Chico (my current super) and Miguel (the super in the new building) their bribes Christmas gifts. I want to be on Chico’s good side so I can sublet my old apartment with no trouble, and Brian and I want to be on Miguel’s good side so the apartment is ready on time, so the move is smooth, and so that he’ll help us do the things we want to do with it.

The strike is over, I hear.

I left Brian’s this morning to go to the listing broker for our apartment to give him cash for the credit check and some additional information. Unfortunately, my rear bicycle tire was flat. I walked the bike over to Metro Bicycles to get the tire fixed, which took about a half hour. There were a lot of frustrated people in that store.

I rode down to my office to make an appearance and print out paystubs for the apartment application, and spent a few hours here being bitter.

Now I’m heading back up to Chelsea to make another set of keys for Brian’s employee John, who’s staying in my house tonight rather than attempt to make his way to upper Manhattan.

Nikki is going to hold on to the set of keys she has, so she can use the apartment while she’s in town. Her girlfriend Molly is joining her next week; I’m excited about meeting Molly.

Oh yeah. This is the guy who helped us find our great new apartment. If you’re looking to rent or buy in New York, call him.

John McCabe
Douglas Elliman
3 East 54th Street
New York, NY 10022
212 350-8527
jmccabe@elliman.com

I slept at Brians, again, and we and couldn’t sleep, between the excitement and the coffee (we went to Rafaella with Nikki last night and had coffee at midnight). D’oh.

After a stop at Starbucks, at which I got a gingerbread latte, Brian and I went and looked at the apartment at 9 o’clock this morning (which is in itself amazing; my Brian is not a morning person).

He loved it. (I was wrong; there is an apartment he can love.)

Check it out:

• 2 large, real bedrooms (no building walls or doors to get Brian his room)!
• Huge living room!
• New kitchen with real appliances!
• 2 bathrooms!
• Closet space! The total closet space is like the size of my entire apartment. One of the closets is bigger than something that passed for a bedroom in one of the apartments we looked at.
• Morning sun!
• Full time doorman!
• Elevators!
• Common outdoor living space with afternoon sun!
• Laundry on premises!
• Great location in the heart of Chelsea!

So we applied to rent the apartment, and as of about an hour ago, our broker called to let us know “everything is in order,” that we will sign a lease tomorrow, and that I should go get certified checks!

We’re so excited! It was a big step in the relationship to go ahead and do this, but it feels great (as well as maybe a little scarey) to both of us. Particularly for Brian, this is HUGE. I’m very happy, and I think Brian is, too.

Even better, we got it done this year, before I start a new job. We probably won’t be able to move in until January 9, which is the day I start my new job, but we’ll deal.

Yay!

I just looked at a great apartment. Brian and I are going back at 9 tomorrow morning. 2 real bedrooms, a great kitchen and a huge living room, 2 bathrooms, in the heart of Chelsea.

I hope my pessimism was wrong.

Details tomorrow.

… ain’t no luck, I learned to duck!

Check out this comment, from a guy, Joe Dandrea, who I knew from “the scene” (such as it was) on Long Island 20 years ago. He was involved in a series of gay publications, if memory serves, and I remember being in awe of him.

He was searching for David Zuch (my boyfriend 22 years ago … I’m 5th in the Google rankings for the term “David Zuch”) and landed here. Cool, huh! Blogs bring people together! (This is a good example of the community-building properties of blogging.)

Joe is living down in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and is about to launch his own site, AsburyPark.com. He’s using WordPress, too!

Anyway, Joe ended his comment with this, which moved me:

It’s always wonderful — considering AIDS and all — to find someone from 20 years ago posting a blog or being mentioned in a blog as David was a couple of days ago.

If you know that an apartment is available for rent, it has already been rented. (Refer to the uncertainty principle in quantum physics.)

By the way, if anybody knows of a fabulous 2-bedroom apartment in Chelsea, the West Village, or the Upper West Side, please contact me. I will reward you.

Looking for a chateau
Twenty-one rooms but one will do
Looking for a chateau
Twenty-one rooms but one will do
I don’t want to buy it
I just want to rent it for an hour or two

Transit strike

I’m getting into the spirit of the transit strike!

Because she won’t be able to get back to Queens, Brian’s friend Nikki is staying in my apartment tonight. She and Brian are hanging out this evening, then she’s going to sleep here and I’m going to sleep with Brian. Nikki is visiting New York from her home in LA. (Nikki is on the left, and Brian is on the right, in the picture below.)

That means that in the next couple of hours I’m going to change the linens, clean the toilet, make the house smell nice, and put a mint on the pillow.

Other than that, the strike has not had a tremendous impact on my life. I’m still not working, because redundant employees don’t work during transit strikes. I’m getting around by bicycle, so at least I’m mobile.

I wonder what it’s going to be like to drive to Fort Lee to see my parents for Chanukkah and their anniversary this weekend.

Apartment hunting

I’m committed to finding an apartment, and having signed a lease, by the end of the year. But there’s a change — I’m not obsessing about it, and it’s ok with me if it happens next year (although it will be harder once I start a new job I care about). This change is making Brian happier and a lot more relaxed, which is good for me.

I spoke to a new broker today, and told him what we’re looking for, and he was all excited about apartments he had to show us. He said he would make appointments for us to see two apartments today, and call back, but then he never called back. (It’s like my friend Paul says about men in Chelsea. “I’ll call back” means “I won’t call back.” Maybe it’s the same with rental brokers.) Maybe he’ll call back tomorrow. This guy said we have a good shot at a good deal because of the strike, but maybe he wasn’t able to make appointments because nobody is at work. We’ll see.

The first broker just called, however, and has a fabulous new listing in Chelsea, which we’ll see tonight or first thing in the morning. We’ll see if this one evaporates before we even get to see it and if it’s really fabulous. I’m waiting to hear from him about whether it’s tonight or tomorrow. Apparently the listing broker doesn’t have the doorman’s number, but I could ride over there and get it. We’re waiting to hear from the listing broker.

If you’ve been reading my blog this week, you know that I had some trouble with Blogger, which motivated me to replace it. That’s why I started using WordPress.

I imported the contents of my Blogger blog today, so I’m officially and completely done with Blogger. If you were linking to one of my old permalinks, your link is broken. Sorry.

I also lost my old comments, which makes me sad.

The import process was easy. The default blogger import tool that came with WordPress didn’t work, but I found that Andy Skelton provided a fixed script and good instructions.

I’m playing with WordPress themes, so the appearance of the site may change from time to time. A WordPress theme allows a blog administrator to quickly change the way the blog looks. All you have to do is upload the theme (which is just a bunch of files) to the server, then select it in the WordPress administration tool. The content of the blog comes through unchanged. It’s very cool.

My life as a gay Deadhead is one of the things this blog talks about from time to time.

1. If someone searches for “Gay Deadhead,” they end up here.
2. Recall, that I told you about the Ain’t No Time To Hate billboard in Denver.
3. From time to time, I may tell you about the show I’m listening to that particular day. For example.
4. I told you about my friend Natalie Davis.

Have I mentioned how I met my ex, with whom I spent 14 years? We originally met in the second row of a Grateful Dead show in 1988.

In addition, since the search engines hit me when someone searches for “Gay Deadhead,” a couple of people have gotten in touch.

I welcome hearing from people who might enjoy being in touch with someone who self describes as a gay Deadhead. Click here for my contact information.